Fairy chess is the area of
chess composition in which there are some changes to the
rules of chess. The term was introduced by
Henry Tate in 1914.
Thomas R. Dawson (1889–1951), the "father of fairy chess", invented many fairy pieces and new conditions. He was also problem editor of ''
Fairy Chess Review'' (1930–1951).
Although the term "fairy chess" is sometimes used for games, it is more usually applied to problems where the board, pieces, or rules are changed to express an idea or theme impossible in orthodox chess.
Variations on chess intended to create complete, playable games are more typically referred to as
chess variants
A chess variant is a game related to, derived from, or inspired by chess. Such variants can differ from chess in many different ways.
"International" or "Western" chess itself is one of a family of games which have related origins and could be c ...
.
Types of fairy chess problems
Types of changed rules in fairy chess problems include:
* ''New stipulations:'' Probably the most-used alterations are new stipulations about mate instead of a direct mate stipulation. Many of them were invented and some became established.
Selfmates and
helpmates are nowadays often considered to be orthodox (not fairy) stipulations. Among others are
reflexmates and various types of
seriesmovers.
* ''New conditions:'' Encompassing all changes of rules including rules for captures, checks, checkmates, general movement abilities. Many were invented; some became established, including
Circe chess,
Madrasi chess,
Andernach chess Andernach chess is a chess variant in which a piece making a capture (except kings) changes colour. For instance, if a white bishop on a2 were to capture a black knight on g8, the end result would be a black bishop on g8. Non-capturing moves are pl ...
,
monochromatic chess
Monochromatic chess is a chess variant with unknown origin. The initial board position and all rules are the same as in regular chess, except that pieces that begin on a black square must always stay on a black square and pieces that begin on a w ...
,
patrol chess,
Einstein chess, and
Descartes chess.
* ''New chess pieces:'' Conventional
chess piece
A chess piece, or chessman, is a game piece that is placed on a chessboard to play the game of chess. It can be either white or black, and it can be one of six types: king, queen, rook, bishop, knight, or pawn.
Chess sets generally come with ...
s are generalized in many ways into
fairy chess pieces, such as
grasshopper
Grasshoppers are a group of insects belonging to the suborder Caelifera. They are among what is possibly the most ancient living group of chewing herbivorous insects, dating back to the early Triassic around 250 million years ago.
Grasshopp ...
,
nightrider, and
cannon
A cannon is a large- caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder ...
.
* ''Different boards:'' One can vary board size from 8×8 to other sizes (10×10, 8×10, unusual board shapes, etc.) or use different geometries:
cylinder
A cylinder (from ) has traditionally been a three-dimensional solid, one of the most basic of curvilinear geometric shapes. In elementary geometry, it is considered a prism with a circle as its base.
A cylinder may also be defined as an ...
(vertical and horizontal), anchor ring or
torus
In geometry, a torus (plural tori, colloquially donut or doughnut) is a surface of revolution generated by revolving a circle in three-dimensional space about an axis that is coplanar with the circle.
If the axis of revolution does n ...
and others.
There are fairy chess problems that combine some of these changed rules.
All entries in the world championships and in the
FIDE Albums are divided into eight sections: (, and ),
endgame studies
In the game of chess, an endgame study, or just study, is a composed position—that is, one that has been made up rather than played in an actual game—presented as a sort of puzzle, in which the aim of the solver is to find the essentially uniq ...
,
selfmates,
helpmates, fairy chess and retro and
mathematical problems.
Fairy chess literature
Books and pamphlets devoted to fairy chess:
Periodicals devoted to fairy chess:
* ''The Problemist Fairy Supplement'' (August 1930 – June 1936)
* ''Fairy Chess Review'' (August 1936 – April 1958)
* ''Feenschach'', edited by W. Karsch
References
Bibliography
*
External links
Fairy chessby Michael McDowell
by Otto Janko
MetaChess, an open source fairy chess engine
{{Chess variants